If it is allowed, I would just like to, for once, agree to some of the ideas expressed by Michel Rocard who in my opinion saved the European honour of French socialists. Three minority currents in the French Socialist Party (PS) in search of consensus and attempting to flatter a section of public opinion, adopted very critical positions on European construction. It appears that they hesitated between radical opposition and aggressive change of direction from the European institutions. The most recent indications illustrate that they chose the second route, which in their view implies rejection of the current draft of the constitution. They will fight against it being ratified by France and, within the European Parliament, they will fight for a "new constitution" based on socialist ideas. This is the result reached last Saturday by the three "opposition currents" in the PS, which reveal a certain demagogy: "we have to make Europe fit for socialism! We will never agree to a draft that proposes that we renounce our ideal".
A Constitution does not dictate what policies to follow. It is obvious that based on national constitutions, the European constitution should be neither socialist nor liberal. The will of the people (current and future) should be respected and in first place, the meaning of national elections should be safeguarded, which represent the basis of European democracy. What good would these elections be if the constitution imposed the political orientation of the future EU? Nobody has to "renounce their political ideal" but the way for defending it consists of convincing electors how to vote. A constitution that a priori defines what policies to follow would kill democracy. I am developing this concept because it goes beyond the case of the French PS and is valid for all Member States and all political opinion. The current draft of the constitution has serious shortcomings in the institutional domain (composition of the Commission mechanism for economic co-ordination, autonomy of the Euro zone, revision procedures etc.), but the main principles of the "European model of society" are clear, including the meaning of services of general interest. I don't need to repeat once again to what point I consider how indispensable it is for Europe to rapidly adopt this constitution and how the attempts to get it rejected by the party of Jacques Delors and François Mitterand are demagogical and shabby.
Saving the European honour of a party. I said at the beginning that Michel Rocard had saved the European honour of his party. In the same "Journal du dimanche", which took into account the orientation of the three "minority currents" in the PS, he found , with a balanced tone and without any need for purple prose, the necessary boost for summarising the meaning and objectives of European construction and demolished some of the lies about the contents of the draft constitution. Let's thank him for it.
(F.R.)